"Stopped being a citizen when I renounced the championship. Soldiers are citizens and I quit being one because Anthel Camme under the space wizards is fundamentally different from the Anthel Camme I swore to."

"- are non-soldiers not citizens, in the Anthel Camme you swore to?"

"Nope. Soldiers, nobility, persons of note and skill like scribes."

"So you intended, with your resignation, to renounce your citizenship. That will help. Did you know dragons are thinking beings?"

"I knew they're smarter than dogs, if that's what you mean. Cunning and vicious. I was aware the envoys kept saying not to kill them. I don't think they're like us. Also we didn't expressly intend to go dragon hunting I think? Not until we found one. I didn't, at least. Was hoping for a lion or buffalo. Maybe some nice boar. Foxes. Might have been the last chance to do it for real."

"The judge is going to want to know why you were prepared well enough to kill a sizable dragon if you were hoping for buffalo. Did you lose anybody, get injured at all?"

"We already had all our arms and armor for Championship duties. Might as well be well armed in the wilds than not. Okay, let me get the order right here... We'd gotten some small game and one wild goat and were tracking a group of boar when Shannalore spotted the dragon flying south of us. We laid low and tried to figure out its range for a couple days but couldn't tell. Got some boars, and then as we were preparing them we heard it roar nearby. We ran, it chased us for a bit then circled back and ate the boars. That's when Mattin came up with the poison plan. We poisoned some more meat as soon as we killed it, but I think it could tell because that time it came at us with fire breath. We'd set camp in a ravine and used falling rocks as a trap. It still nearly killed us- Maybe would have if not for the healing song. Burns. But that was that."

"Okay. I may be able to successfully argue that you had emigrated from Vanda Nossëo. I think I will not be able to argue that this murder didn't take place because of Vanda Nossëo's presence, and they take that as excuse to prosecute even against non-citizens. But you might have a self-defense case. When you were trying to figure out her range, were you hoping to avoid that territory or use the information to kill her?"

"Interfering, bah. I wasn't really thinking about it? Some of both."

"Were any of the attempts your idea?"

"Mattin came up with the poison idea and the rock trap. I did help find the poison herbs though."

"And the burns that you needed the healing song to survive happened when she noticed the poison meat, or when she was under the rocks?"

"From when she set half the forest on fire chasing us." He frowns. "Can you swear to not use what I'm going to say next? Context only. Because the bond of brothers in arms... I do not want to betray it."

"I won't talk in the courtroom at all, or about your case with anyone else unless I have to hand off to a colleague for some reason, but you're going to have to answer questions with truth magic operative, so I need to know."

"Mattin seemed particularly keen and clever about the dragon. He was practically skipping when he saw it. He's... A good friend, but he's also kind of a scheming bastard sometimes. So one wonders."

"You think he may have been particularly interested in hunting a dragon?"

"Yeah."

"It would probably help the judge's impression of you if you mentioned that he was the driving force of the decision to attack the dragon instead of getting out of her way. But I don't think it will make or break your case and I'm not certain the judge will ask."

"Does it help if I was there for old debt and friendships sake more than the hunt itself?"

"A little, but it'd be a sentence reduction, more than a way you could get out of jail time entirely."

"Well. There's worse jails."

"Yes, they're comfortable, but they aren't going to let you out for hunting trips. You'll get better results if you can express remorse about the dragon's death."

"If someone can show me that they're more than rabid beasts I would regret it. Whole thing is leaving a bad taste in my mouth already."

"They're telepathic, it's hard for most people to talk to them but Elves do it fine. There's one studying music with a bunch of them. She qualified for insurance and has been law-abiding in her time there."

"...I'll look that up on the computers later, sure. They do kill people pretty regularly you know. Anyone would expect a dragon to be a major threat."